Water, gasoline and oil as well as other fluids are commonly routed through pipe that is buried beneath a ground surface. Thousands of miles of pipe are generally required to reach selected destinations. Over time, the pipe may become obsolete, or placed out of commission for some reason. As a result, it is desirable, and in some states mandatory, that the unused pipe be extracted from beneath the ground surface. The recovered pipe is generally valuable, and may be suitable for reuse, recycled, or used in some other capacity, such as a structural member in construction.
The pipe is presently recovered by digging along the pipe line, and thereafter, in a separate operation, removing the pipe. Commonly, a backhoe is used to dig a trench, and another backhoe may follow with an implement having jaws for removing the pipe. In addition, a separate bulldozer is typically used to backfill the trench that was dug to remove the pipe. The present practice for removing pipe is extremely time consuming and laborious, and typically allows one mile of pipe or less to be extracted per day. Additionally, the present process typically creates a wide area of disturbed soil on both sides of the trench, thereby requiring extended amounts of time, effort and labor to backfill the trench. When the pipe line that is being removed is under a farm filed, a substantial area of valuable crop may be damaged during removal of a pipe line employing a conventional tractor backhoe or and excavator. Contamination of the top soil by subsoil may reduce crop production for several years.